Building Foundations on Rock or Sand

“Leaders in business and government, who fail to see the holistic interdependence of our planet, are destined to cause its demise.”  - Said Elias Dawlabani, Memenomics: The Next Generation Economic System

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” - Matthew 7:24-27 (NIV)

The #1206 “fiction” series continues ….

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On a hot, sticky summer afternoon in Manhattan, I stood on the corner of Wall St. and Broadway and watched idly as people hurriedly went about their business.  “Everyone going nowhere in a hurry”, I thought to myself.

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a voice to my right as a deep, baritone voice said “It seems like everyone is in a hurry to go nowhere, doesn’t it?”.

Startled that someone had voiced the very sentiment that I was thinking, I turned to face the origin of the musing.

The tall, impeccably-dressed man facing me smiled amusingly, seemingly aware that his comment had startled me.

“You’re right”, I replied, “They are in total oblivion to what’s going on around them.  I guess ignorance is bliss after all.”

“Possibly”, he replied, pursing his lips for a moment. “However, even ignorance is fleeting. Every person is eventually forced to acquire wisdom or pay the price for their ignorance.”

“What do you mean?”, I asked.

“Would you walk with me for a moment?”, he asked.  Nodding my consent, we began to walk down Wall St.

“Imagine you have a dollar”, he continued as we walked slowly down the street.  “You lend me the dollar and I use it as collateral to borrow a second dollar so now I have two dollars.  I lend the two dollars to a friend and following the same process, he converts it into four dollars.  He buys food with some of the money and passes the rest on.  Some friends later, the current top person in the lending pyramid is now in possession of over a thousand dollars.  That person buys weapons with some of the money, sells weapons to make more money and then lends the rest.  A couple of friends later, the current top of the chain uses the money to buy political influence or power and sits on the rest of the money.”

“There is nothing strange about that”, I noted.  “Many of our investment vehicles work exactly like that.  That is how the world works.”

“Very true”, my companion nodded.  “Now let’s assume you have an emergency in your Life and you need your dollar immediately.  You come to me but I don’t have the money you lent me so I ask for it up the chain.  The guy I lent it to realizes that he will have to give up his food and is not happy with that and so he tries to get some of the money back from the guy who bought weapons.  That guy realizes he will have to give up some of his weapons in order to be able to satisfy the request and decides that that is not an option.  So he in turn asks people higher up the chain to give up some of their money so that someone can send a dollar back down the chain to you.”

He paused for a moment before continuing. “The people at the top, not wanting to give up the power they have bought with their money, decline the request and so despite a lot of perceived money in the system, no one is able to return a simple dollar to help you.  However, the person at the top decides he is willing to lend you a dollar with exorbitant interest if you are desperate enough.  While you have accepted this approach in the past, you now decide to exercise a legal process to force me to return your dollar to you and in the process, the pyramid collapses as people at various levels are forced to give up food, weapons or power.  This causes them to turn upon each other to protect what they perceive is their right to own.  Meanwhile, the guy at the bottom, you, just wanted your dollar back but in your inability to get your dollar back unencumbered, you are in the least powerful position of all and your world collapses.”

We walked in silence for a bit before he concluded.  “The person with the smallest ulterior motive is also the one with the least amount of power but the one who will be punished the most for merely asking for what was rightfully his.  Seems awkward or unfair, doesn’t it?”

“I guess”, I replied as I mulled over his words, trying to decide if they made sense or not and whether or not I had somehow contributed to this if true.”

We both paused for a moment before I asked, “But if that’s the case, who would benefit the most from such an arrangement?”

“Now that is an excellent question”, he replied.  “Seeking the answer to such a question would prove to be of great value for humanity.  Unfortunately, few have such courage to pursue it.  It’s like being the first family to settle in a neighbourhood that a city is rehabilitating.  Few have the courage to put their family at risk by being first but everyone wants to reap the reward derived from driving the bad elements out of a neighbourhood in order to reclaim it.”

He was silent for a moment, allowing his words to sink it, and then he asked, “What type of person are you?”

“I’m not sure”, I replied, “I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

When my comment produced no reply, I looked around and my companion was gone.  Momentarily confused, I looked around me, knowing that he couldn’t have disappeared that quickly.

As I continued to look around in bewilderment, I looked up and realized that I was standing in front of the Federal Reserve ….

…. and I wondered.

To be continued.

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© 2014 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Series Origin:

This series, a departure from my usual musings,  is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks as well as my own professional background as a Wall St. / Fortune 25 strategy and large-scale technology architect.

While this musing is just “fiction” and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

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The Value of A Second in Time

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst. - William Penn

You may delay, but time will not. - Benjamin Franklin

I was reminded of the value of a single second yesterday as I drove behind a limousine in Calgary when suddenly a vehicle approaching from our right ignored a stop signal and t-boned the limousine.

After stopping to make sure that everyone was ok, to provide witness contact information and the like, I left the scene reflecting on the value of one second and I realized that if I had been one second further ahead or the driver had been one second slower, I would have been the one t-boned by the wayward driver.  Driving a much smaller vehicle, it is unknown what such an event would have produced but likely it would not have been very good.

In talking to a few people about the incident, most of them expressed the idea that “nothing happened so I should ignore it”.

However, I see it differently.

I see such moments as reinforcements or reminders for maintaining an attitude of gratitude, that it is important to never take anything for granted.

Such incidents also remind me of the value of a single second and how that one second can make all the difference in our world or the worlds of others.

Now in fairness, there is not much that one can do with a single second and so maybe the people I spoke to are right.  Maybe in fact I am making too much out of the value of a single second in time.

But I look at it this way.

If I offer you something that weighs an ounce, it’s negligible weight is barely noticeable.  If I add another ounce, it doesn’t feel like much either.  However, if I add another ounce and yet another and keep on adding weight an ounce at a time, the negligible additions will eventually exceed your strength, either exhausting you or crushing you.

Time is like that.

A second doesn’t mean a whole lot.  A second second following the first won’t feel like much either.

However, as time accumulates, it suddenly has value, compounded by the notion that once spent, the time is not recoverable, what we have created with it cannot be undone and we don’t know how much time we have left.

The Bottom Line

Maybe we have years left.

Or maybe we have a single second.

And so maybe the folks I spoke to are wrong and I am right.

Maybe that one second can in fact make all the difference ….. in personal relationships, in professional success and maybe in your Life itself.

With that in mind, I wonder what would happen if we treated every second with the respect commensurate with the value potential contained within it.

What would we do with our Life if we actually honored the true value contained within a single second?

Do you treat every second with such respect?

Are you sure?

How do you know?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

Destiny’s Director

Man is supposed to be the maker of his destiny. It is only partly true. He can make his destiny, only in so far as he is allowed by the Great Power. - Mahatma Gandhi

Strange things blow in through my window on the wings of the night wind and I don't worry about my destiny. - Carl Sandburg

The #1206 “fiction” series continues ….

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In a softly lit room on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, two men sat quietly, each studying the other.

“These dreams have been plaguing me for years and I couldn’t deal with them anymore.  That’s why I came to see you”, concluded the younger man.

“I understand”, replied the doctor.  “You did the right thing by coming to see me.  So let me see if I understand you correctly.  You claim that when you meet people in your dreams, that within a year or two, you actually meet them in person.  Is this an accurate understanding?”

“I know it sounds crazy”, the patient replied, “but I can prove it.  I’ve kept a journal of my dreams with complete descriptions of the people that I eventually meet.  Many of them whom I meet for real tell me that they feel like they have met me before.  But there are two things that are really bothering me about my dreams.”

“And what are they?”, the doctor asked in his monotone voice.

“Well”, replied the patient, beginning hesitantly.  “The first is that there is always a third person in the room who seems to be the one who introduces us.  Well, maybe introduces is the wrong word.  She is always present, she never speaks and she usually just stands there and watches us without saying anything.  She gives me the creeps.”

“Does this woman remind you of anyone you know?”, asked the doctor.  “Does she have any distinguishing features that make her stand out?”

“Her eyes”, replied the patiently nervously.  “She has very large eyes that look right through you.  They are not hostile, friendly, angry or anything else.  They are completely without emotion.  She just stares at us without smiling or anything.”

“That would seem unusual”, agreed the doctor.  “What is the other thing that is really bothering you?”

“Well”, the patient replied nervously, “The last person I met in my dreams where this large-eyed woman is also present was in a dream like no other.  In the dream, I was making love to this woman while the woman with the large eyes just watched.  She didn’t smile or say anything.  She just watched us.”

“Having dreams of making love to strangers is not unusual”, replied the doctor.  “Such dreams contain many messages about things the brain is processing.  Who or what do you think the woman you are making love to represents?”

“Represents?”, asked the patient incredulously.  “I met her for real two years later in a coffee shop and we hit it off as if we had known each other all our lives.  No awkwardness of any kind.  She even told me that she felt as if she had met me before and that she had known me for years.”

He paused before continuing.  “It makes me wonder if these are dreams or if they are really happening”, he said quietly.

“Well”, replied the doctor, “We must be careful that we don’t confuse dreams and coincidences or that we don’t accidentally retrofit the memory of a past dream to match a current event.  Such things are very common.”

“Maybe”, conceded the patient, “But I think there is more to it than that.  I wonder if someone out there is connecting me with others for a reason or purpose.”

“That is an interesting observation”, noted the doctor, “Why don’t we save that for the next session.”

“You’re right”, agreed the patient as he stood up.  Thanking the doctor for the session, he saw himself out of the office.

Two hours later, in the waning hours of the evening, he found himself reflecting on the conversation with his therapist as he drove down the quiet road to his home miles from the city.  Over his left shoulder, he casually observed a plane paralleling him and as he did so, confusion and then drowsiness suddenly overcame him.

He woke up startled and confused in a small room devoid of any furniture except for the small bed he was lying on.  Wondering how he got there, he stood up on shaky legs, walked slowly over to the door and opened it.

In the long hallway that stretched out of sight to his left and right, a flurry of activity attacked his senses, with people walking quickly in both directions.  He noted with curiosity that quite a number of them seemed to be in military uniforms.

As his confused mind struggled to understand what he was observing, he was startled by someone clearing his throat.  “I assume you have many questions”, came a voice to his left. “I will do what I can to answer them.”

As he turned, his eyes focused on two figures in front of him.

A short, nondescript man, clearly the one who had just spoken, stood before him.

But it was the other person that startled him.

The woman who had participated in the introductions in his dream stood before him, tall, unsmiling and with the same penetrating, emotionless eyes.

“Please step back into the room”, the short man said.  “Let’s talk about your destiny.”

To be continued.

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© 2014 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Series Origin:

This series, a departure from my usual musings,  is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks.

While this musing is just “fiction” and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

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Your Life Story–Do You Hear What I Hear?

I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening. - Larry King

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk. – Doug Larson

Some years ago, I was driving home from work when for some reason I felt strongly compelled to stop into a retirement facility in the area.  It was an odd feeling since I did not have any friend or family member in residence there but I felt it was important to stop by anyway.

After arriving at the facility, I wandered around the grounds, not really engaging with anyone while simultaneously wondering why I was there when suddenly my eyes locked with the eyes of an elderly gentleman sitting alone.

For reasons unknown to me until today, I walked over to him, introduced myself and sat beside him.  He introduced himself as Mr. Green and within minutes he began telling me his Life story.

Mr. Green had outlived his children, his wife and his siblings and was spending the final days of his Life alone at this facility.  He told me stories of growing up in a small outport in Newfoundland, of the days where he would row more than 5 miles one way every day across the harbor (and the same distance back later in the evening) to visit the woman who would later become his wife and the victories and challenges he had experienced raising his family in a small town.

The few hours I spent with him went by quickly and he thanked me for taking the time to listen to his “silly stories”.  I in turn thanked him for sharing with me the most powerful moments of his Life and then I left.

And just as I couldn’t explain at the time why I had stopped by that day, for reasons equally unknown to me, I never returned to visit Mr. Green again.

That interaction took place 30 years ago, remaining dormant and forgotten in my memory until a conversation with someone today about the importance of listening brought the events back to me as if they had happened yesterday.

The power in our story

Mr. Green thought his collection of memories were merely silly stories when in fact they were a beautiful compilation of a Life well-lived.

A Life like his.

A Life like yours.

As he told me his stories, he saw each of them as expressions of stand-alone, unrelated events.  I saw them as an unfolding tapestry of connected events, each event in his Life clearly and obviously equipping him for the next event in his Life.

In speaking to someone about his story today, they made an observation that I thought was powerful.  The observation was this:

After we have survived or experienced a significant event in our Life, is there a hint of our future that is provided to us?

Do we listen to the messages that such events present to us?

Do we see the connection between the events in our Lives?

I found this to be an emotionally stirring series of questions.  << Yes, we tough, cold, ruthless Wall St. ***holes have been known to get misty-eyed in coffee shops.  Please don’t tell anyone – we have a reputation to protect. >>

Mr. Green did not see the connection between the events nor did he see how each event equipped him with new knowledge, wisdom and growth in his character, values and morals to prepare him for the next event.

He didn’t see the importance of the lessons he had acquired through the living of his Life.

He did not understand the true value of the events he had experienced.

He did not fully comprehend the value of his Life story.

And he didn’t understand the impact of sharing his stories with a young stranger who wandered into the retirement facility that day for unknown reasons.

Unknown to me until today ……

It is true that each of us is nothing more than a collection of stories.  It is these stories that define the legacy that we leave behind when we have long-since departed this place.

Our stories represent our perception and expression of our experiences both significant and mundane.  While we are the primary author of our story, many people are brought into or forced into our lives to contribute material to our story while we are simultaneously invited or forced to contribute material to theirs, creating the collection of comedies and tragedies that form the essence of who we are.

Many of our stories are written in the public eye.

Many are written seemingly in private when we think that no one is watching.

Regardless of how we write our stories, there is someone out there who is modeling our behavior or looking up to us in some way.

In those moments, we are not just writing our story.

We are creating or providing the material by which others are writing their story as we knowingly or unknowingly participate as coauthors.

The Bottom Line

Remember when we used to take our high school yearbooks and collect the autographs of our fellow classmates, creating a permanent memory of who they were?

In a similar way, people leave indelible marks on our hearts and Spirits as we make our way through Life, adding material to our Book of Life, inviting us to contribute to theirs or one person being forced to accept the contribution of another.

And as we write our collective stories together, what matters is that we are listening to the story that our Lives are expressing about us, since we never know who is modeling our Life or looking up to us for wisdom, knowledge or inspiration.

The questions then become ….

Are you listening to your story and the impact on others?

Are you listening to the stories of others and their impact on you?

Are you listening at all?

Are you sure?

How do you know?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

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Related posts:

• Connecting the Dots–Valuing the Connections In Your Life

Take Me To Your Leader

Whose leadership, whose judgment, whose values do you want in the White House when that crisis lands like a thud on the Oval Office desk? - Rahm Emanuel

Politics is in a crisis because it's separated from our deep humanity. - Marianne Williamson

A man has no more character than he can command in a time of crisis. - Ralph W. Sockman

The #1206 “fiction” series continues ….

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In our near future ….

For the first time in the modern era, the residents of the planet Earth stood unified in silence as the message before them either frightened or stunned them.  Across television screens, laptops, tablets and smart phones, the same message scrolled in the native language of the viewer.

The message read:

Greetings to the people of Earth.  We have travelled a great distance over time and space seeking the best leaders of your planet.  You have 24 hours to identify those of your species that best exemplify the leadership qualities we desire for an important mission elsewhere.  Your planet will be rewarded handsomely for complying with our request.

6 hours later …..

In an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, the permanent and temporary members argued vehemently over who should represent the Earth on this historic occasion.  The US ambassador argued that as the most powerful nation on Earth, the US should represent the planet.  Other nations argued that as older nations, their cultures better represented the Earth in general.  At the same time, bureaucrats in the bowels of UN Headquarters argued over the nature of the reward being promised.

Meanwhile, the leaders of NATO met in an undisclosed location in Belgium to review their military retaliatory options should the discussions with the visitors not turn out as expected.  The participants also excitedly discussed the possibility of the reward being some type of military weapon that would provide them with military superiority.

The citizens of Earth waited in expectation of what their leaders would decide.

The visitors waited patiently.

12 hours later ….

The President of the United States stared bleary-eyed at the briefing notes in front of him.  The UN was paralyzed and seemed unable to produce any form of selection criteria that could be used to offer the visitors the leaders that best represented the Earth.  In addition, NATO representatives had expressed concern that Russia and China were both signalling potentially aggressive behavior and had armed some of their respective space-based arsenals.  On the advice of his Joint Chiefs of Staff, the President agreed to move to DEF CON 2 to protect the US against any aggressive acts by other nations.

Meanwhile in Russia and China, Presidents Putin and Xi Jinping were informed that US military ready status had escalated and they notified their respective military leaders to take similar action in response.

The citizens of Earth waited nervously as their leaders had still not expressed their intentions.

The visitors waited patiently.

18 hours later ….

The UN Security Council meeting had ended in frustration with no solution in sight.  Embassies around the world buzzed with activity as nations accused each other of unfairly manipulating dialog or using the threat of military action to exert influence over the selection of the leaders as requested by the visitors.

The “red phone” was silent as Presidents Obama and Putin had exchanged sharp opinions an hour earlier as to why each of their respective nations deserved the right to represent the Earth.  President Obama had cut off dialog in frustration but not before warning President Putin that any aggressive act on the part of Russia would be met in kind by the United States.

The citizens of Earth feared what their leaders appeared to be contemplating.

The visitors waited patiently.

24 hours later ….

Military systems around the world began activating, target acquisition systems verified targets and the great military machines of the planet Earth became fully aware that their purpose was about to be realized.

Suddenly, with as little warning as when the visitors arrived, televisions, laptops, tablets and smart phones around the world came to life and a message from the visitors began to scroll across the devices in the native language of the viewer.

The message read:

We have selected the people whom we believe best exemplify strong leadership characteristics within your species.  Here are the leaders that we have selected and taken aboard our craft.

What followed included descriptions of a teacher in Arkansas who went above and beyond to help underprivileged students, a six year old girl in Australia who raised funds to help a fellow student pay for cancer treatment, a young man in China who leapt into an icy cold river in his hometown to save a drowning woman and a wealthy businessman who turned all of his wealth over to a research company closing in on a cure for cancer.

The list of names was long and represented the best in humanity.  It included people who sacrificed themselves for others, those who put themselves at risk for others, those whose love for the downtrodden was so strong that they dedicated their Life to lifting others, those who led by example (not by abuse of wealth or power) and those who spent their Lives inspiring others to raise themselves to their ultimate potential.

The list glaringly omitted what appeared to humans to be the obvious leadership candidates - those who comprised the wealthy, the powerful and the elite in government, business and religion.

The message concluded with a thank you and a reminder that the people of Earth would soon receive their promised reward.

Departure

As the visitor ship began to pull away from the Earth and return to its own time in the Earth’s future, two occupants of the spacecraft observed the receding blue planet on a large monitor.

“The people of Earth have indeed produced some incredible leadership candidates”, observed the first occupant, the commander of the vessel.

“Very true”, replied his companion.  “We must prepare to deliver the reward that we promised.  They have earned it.”

“I agree”, nodded the Commander.  Tapping a small communication device on his collar, he informed the responding crew member to deliver the reward to the people of Earth.

“I’m not sure that’s possible”, replied the crew member. “As I observe the time dimension that we are leaving, there appears to be some type of military conflagration developing on the planet.  It appears that some form of primitive nuclear weapon exchange has begun between the nations of the planet.”

“How unfortunate”, replied the Commander.  “The reward of unlimited, unconditional peace amongst all creatures as we have shared with millions of planets was within their grasp.  They were so close to learning that true power originates not from the wealthy and powerful but from within the power of the heart and Spirit of the individual.  Unfortunate indeed that they have missed such a great learning opportunity.”

“Do you think their demise is our fault?  Maybe the nature of our request and our reward created the problem that we are now witnessing”, asked his colleague.

“No”, replied the Commander.  “We didn’t alter their behavior.  Our presence merely revealed its potential – good and bad.”

His colleague nodded in silence as they observed the final gasps of Life on the planet Earth evaporate for eternity.

Back to the present ....

"Mr. President", came a voice on the phone, "There is a call from a Doctor Jerry Ehman on line 2 for you.  He says it's urgent."

"Thank you, Janice", replied the President.

Picking up the phone, he spoke quietly.  "Good afternoon, Dr. Ehman.  How may I help you today?", he asked.

"Mr. President", came a quiet voice on the other end of the phone.  "I believe we have a problem."

“Do you know what’s worth fighting for?

When it’s not worth dying for? – 21 Guns (Green Day)

To be continued.

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© 2014 – Harry Tucker – All Rights Reserved

Background:

The red phone, which provides secure communication between Washington and Moscow is in fact not a phone but a secure email exchange system between the leaders of the US and Russia.

Dr. Jerry Ehman is an American radio astronomer who discovered the Wow! signal in 1977, the first radio signal purported to originate from extraterrestrial sources.

I am intrigued by four themes or questions here:

• Be careful what you fight for and therefore choose your fights carefully.
• Not all gifts are beneficial.
• Who are the real leaders here on Earth?
• How do you know?

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Series Origin:

This series, a departure from my usual musings,  is inspired as a result of conversations with former senior advisors to multiple Presidents of the United States, senior officers in the US Military and other interesting folks.

While this musing is just “fiction” and a departure from my musings on technology, strategy, politics and society, as a strategy guy, I do everything for a reason and with a measurable outcome in mind. :-)

This “fictional” musing is a continuation of the #1206 series noted here.

---

Connecting the Dots–Valuing the Connections In Your Life

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life. - Steve Jobs

After a high-energy, frantic pace over the last couple of months (apologies to those who enjoy my musings, I’ve been light in content these days), I found myself reflecting on the nature of the “dots” in our Life - the significant events in our Lives that shape who we are, the results we produce and the legacy that we leave behind.

Many who strive for success believe that those who have found it have followed a Life journey that looks like this:

Others will tell you that the journey looks more like this:

In truth the journey theoretically looks more like the following, where the dots in our Lives and the dots of the Lives of others overlap for a duration that varies from brief to a Lifetime, with the overlap changing each person’s Life in known or unknown ways in regards to scale, duration and results:

In reality, the Life journey looks more like the following, with the “dots” of many people overlapping ours, enhancing or impeding our Lives as other people collaborate or interfere with us:

So what are the odds of two dots connecting?

I sat down the other day with someone and calculated, based on their Life experiences and mine, factoring in significant Life events such as surviving life-threatening illnesses, serious accidents and the like, that the odds of both of us surviving long enough to meet each other and being in the same place at the same moment to actually meet each other were approximately 1 in 38,500,000.

When I reflected upon that statistic, I compared the result to these observations:

1. I need to buy more Canadian lottery tickets, with the odds of winning the big prize being approximately 1 in 14,000,000.
2. I need to stay indoors during thunderstorms as the odds of being struck by lightning in a lifetime is only 1 in 3,000.

I could say that I need to stay away from airplanes, with the odds of dying in a plane crash being 1 in 11,000,000 but I have survived 4 airplane incidents in my lifetime so I will ignore that statistic.

The Bottom Line

While not every connection has the outrageous odds against that I calculated above, if the odds are slim that you will come into someone else’s Life (or that they will come into yours), I would think that such reality places an extremely high value on the coalescing of two people’s “dots” whether the “dots” overlap for a moment or for a Lifetime, since the result potential, good or bad, is not likely to be produced in exactly that form ever again.

If the potential for a unique lesson or result is that rare, I would think that such rare odds of meeting should serve as a reminder to each of us that each interaction has unlimited potential in value if we are open to seeing it, embracing it and exploring it.

And finally, I think if you have lost sight of the value of a relationship, you should dust off your old high school mathematics textbook and recalculate the odds that the relationship exists and having done so, rethink what this means in your Life.

What do you think?

In service and servanthood,

Harry

PS For those who prefer my very serious strategy, biz, Poli Sci and #1206 musings, I will return to them soon.  You’re not forgotten.